InVerve — Hotel in Timișoara

This hostel deserves five stars for its interior design, which is superb. Everything about the interior is great: the beds, the details around the beds (bedding, plugs, lights, curtain); the bathrooms and kitchen are also good.

But there are some seriously annoying things about this hostel, mainly concerning its presentation online but also some on the interior -- namely the fact that someone goes around daily turning off the heating and the lights in the public areas only turn on by sensor which means they turn off if you stay too still in the kitchen or bathroom. Dan the man, the nice guy who runs the place, told me they installed these lights to save energy as "people kept leaving them on" but how can you save energy if 8 lights come on every time someone walks to the toilet? It's crazy.

What really bugs me about this otherwise great hostel is the reality is so different from its online presentation, where it looks like a spacious villa. If they would just say it's only a small apartment with no reception it would be fine: just be honest.

There is a reception but it's not connected to the flat and the door to it is locked so I'm not sure what's behind the door.

Also, there is a sign at the bottom of the common stairs that seems to say 3rd floor -- but there is no third floor -- and when you get to the first floor, where the hostel is located alongside other apartments, there's no sign to guide you in. I would have left at that point but I stumbled across it and then found the 10 digit entry code they sent me along with all sorts of other instructions.

If they had said "this is an unattended hostel and we only pop in during the day, so please take care of it," they would have activated my sense of responsibility. Instead they seem to operate under the (quite Romanian) idea that "everyone's an idiot" and so they have all sorts of rules -- some of which you can see in the photos.

I complained to Dan the man about some of these issues but he got quite defensive and gave me detailed explanations about it all; he didn't get the point that I was trying to offer him friendly feedback that might help them improve their service.

This business model of offering an empty hostel is a perfectly good one but you have to be clear from the outset, and offer guidelines that are crystal clear. Otherwise you risk pissing off people like me who would normally be your best advocates.

What almost drove me away a second time was when I first tried to have a shower. I stood in the cold for ages trying to get some hot water to come out ... and then just washed my hands and feet in cold water. The bathroom heating had been turned off in some misguided attempt to save a few pennies.

I asked Dan when the hot water comes on and he said "it's on all the time"; when I told him I'd been standing for ages waiting for it he went into denial mode and rushed off to check what I'd done. He came back and said "it's working fine," and didn't realise that what he was really saying was "'you're an idiot!"

This potential 5 star hostel would benefit from a bit of honesty in its presentation and also a modicum of respect of customers' complaints/observations -- we're not looking for explanations, just an acknowledgement and (God forbid) an apology.

The Americans are great at this; if you complain in an American restuarant or hostel they don't try and rationalise it -- they apologise immediately and try and learn from the comment. Easy for some, but apparently not for Romanians or, I suspect, the other nations that have suffered from the curse...

I stayed at this hostel with 5 more friends on January 2020 for 2 nights. Everything was absolutely perfect! It was really clean, it had lockers, they left amenities for the guests and it’s not more than a minute away from the city centre. We made an error while booking and yet, once there, when we spoke to Dan he solved everything for us without any problem! He’s such a great man! |The building’s staircase might be a little bit sketchy, but don’t worry, once you get to the hostel you’ll see how nice it is in the inside!|Definitely, an amazing place to stay if you’re...

My stay here was just amazing! The flat was renovated in 2018 and it's all new. The atmosphere is really chill and there is all you need there. It's located in the center, in a quiet pedestrian street, so you can sleep like a baby in the night. The owner, Dan was really nice and even if I arrived late in the night, he sent me all the instructions to get my room. The room and the flat itself is really clean, and the room too, nothing to say about that. I've been in some hostels in central and eastern europe before and this one was the best i've been...